Check Out the New Networking Nuggets Series

New Networking Nuggets Video Series

Networking Nuggets Banner

I’ve just added a new series of short (1-2 minute) videos named Networking Nuggets, complete with graphics showing the key points for each nugget, on the topic of networking. The first ten of these vignettes are now up and available now on YouTube!

In the Networking Nuggets series you’ll find tips on getting together physically, making sure your business card is up to snuff, letting people know who you are, how to be better connected, how not to be a networking “sinner,” how to become a super networker and several other topics. And, depending on their popularity, there will be more — perhaps even many more! — to come.

You can find this new Networking Nuggets series on YouTube at the following links:

Networking Nuggets #1 – How To Get Together, Away From The Computer  https://youtu.be/Yw7_U7fNPXg

Networking Nugget #2 – How To Make Sure Your Business Card is Networking Ready  https://youtu.be/GsJxZwrrjhU

Networking Nugget #3 – How To Let People Know Who You Are
https://youtu.be/lVIUVS4ibN0

Networking Nugget #4 – How To Be Better Connected
https://youtu.be/ju2ovLj3uhI

Networking Nugget #5 – How Not To Be A Networking Sinner
https://youtu.be/fmamX9twtD4

Networking Nugget #6 – How To Be A Super Networker
https://youtu.be/xIplGYtGDoE

Networking Nugget #7 – How To Conquer Your Fear Of Speaking At Networking Events  https://youtu.be/0vmMX08nnmk

Networking Nugget #8 – How To Make The Most Of Networking Events
https://youtu.be/P-Ajxz_xkMo

Networking Nugget #9 – How To Use Some Interesting Networking Technigues
https://youtu.be/yhf6rkgFtBQ

Networking Nugget #10 – How Not To Feel Awkward At Networking Events  https://youtu.be/1Gh8WrUh-1I

I hope you enjoy these first ten short videos and find them useful. And please do share them freely with your friends and colleagues. Thanks!

Want help with your networking activities? Hone your skill by taking the Business Networking Necessities, Niceties and No-Nos course on YesCourse.com.

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Want even more help? Get one-on-one consulting from the master networker of Portland: Jon Turino!

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You can actually book a session online using jonturino/youcanbook.me. The cost is only $65 per session.

You’ll get personalized advice on why you might want to consider networking, where to network, who to network with and how to network most effectively — including the critical follow-up steps! Book your session today!

 

Please share this post with your friends and colleagues in your networking world! Thanks!

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November 16th Monday Marketing Minutes

November 16th Monday Marketing Minutes

Slide3

The second episode of Monday Marketing Minutes™ was broadcast live via YouTube using Google+ Hangouts On Air.

Here’s a summary of the tips and advice that were included in this episode. You can click on the image above to watch the replay on YouTube at your convenience. And if you have marketing questions you’d like answered you can always send them to me at jon@jonturino.com for inclusion in a future episode of Monday Marketing Minutes.

Slide2The tips presented during the November 16th, 2015, episode had to do with understanding that marketing is a process and not an event. Your marketing strategy and tactics need to be well planned in advance of the execution of your plan.

The plan itself must be cohesive if it is to be maximally successful. That means that all of the underlying strategies, tactics, messages and media selection must tie together and have a common look and feel. This applies as well to online marketing via social media and the design of websites and landing pages. The plan must also be comprehensive, covering all the bases in terms of media and messaging.

I also spoke about remembering that marketing involves everyone in the company from corporate management to customer service personnel — including every employee — and not just the marketing department.

Slide3The advice presented during this episode dealt with remembering WHY people buy: based on emotions and supported by logic. The emotions can fall into many categories, including being fed or driven by necessity, need, want, desire or ego. So when the messages are crafted they need to trigger the buying impulses based on the emotions you think will be strongest for your product or service.

I used some slides from my Probiotic Marketing™ presentation/infographic to illustrate these points. People buy things — or do anything else for that matter —  based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Thus, you need to craft your message to match the level of need — physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem and the self-actualization levels — if you are to be successful. The three slides that followed in the broadcast were used to illustrate these points.

You can watch the replay of the complete broadcast here. Enjoy and please do remember to send me your questions for future episodes of Monday Marketing Minutes. You’ll find links to all past and future episodes HERE.

Hangout on Air Guest Invitation 1000x485And, as always, please do contact me if you’d like help with your marketing plans, strategies, and tactics. I’d love to be of service to you in building your business through better marketing.

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November 9th Monday Marketing Minutes

November 9th Monday Marketing Minutes

Slide2

The first episode of Monday Marketing Minutes™ was broadcast live via YouTube using Google+ Hangouts On Air.

Here’s a summary of the tips and advice that were included in this episode. You can click on the image above to watch the replay on YouTube at your convenience. And if you have marketing questions you’d like answered you can always send them to jon@jonturino.com for inclusion in a future episode of Monday Marketing Minutes.

Slide2The tips presented during the November 9th, 2015, episode had to do with analyzing your current customer base so that you can find out who your best customers are and why they are your best customers. With this information in hand, you can then craft a strategy to find more customers like them from other sources.

Knowing who your best customers are, what they are buying and, perhaps most importantly, why they are buying is critical to identifying places to locate additional members of your most successful target markets, crafting messages that will resonate with those prospects the way your current messaging is working with your current top customers and using the right media for reaching new audiences containing prospects who best fit your target customer profile.

Slide3The advice presented during this episode dealt with the message development step in crafting the most effective messages — messages that not only appeal to the logic the customer uses to justify purchasing what you are selling but also to the emotions — the belly — that trigger the buying impulse. Both elements must usually be present to motivate an immediate purchase.

It’s also critical to understand WHY people buy things in order to craft the right message for them. Eliminating a problem or alleviating pain is often a good strategy, depending on the product or service being offered. Other good inducements include reducing fear of loss, desire for gain, the need for comfort and convenience, the satisfaction of emotional needs and the creation of a better lifestyle or life condition.

You can watch the replay of the complete broadcast here. Enjoy and please do remember to send me your questions for future episodes of Monday Marketing Minutes. You’ll find links to all past and future episodes HERE.

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And, as always, please do contact me if you’d like help with your marketing plans, strategies, and tactics. I’d love to be of service to you in building your business through better marketing.

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Celebrate Your Successes

Slide43Celebrate Your Achievements & Successes

Don’t wait until you’ve reached your final goal to be proud of yourself. Be proud of every step you take toward reaching that goal.

You’ve read seven chapters. Congratulations! Give yourself a pat on the back. Do your “happy dance.” Take ten minutes to do something you really enjoy. Tell someone how proud you are of yourself. Give someone a hug (with their permission, of course!) and ask them if there is something you can do for them that will make them want to do their happy dance.

As important as it is to celebrate success, it is also important to analyze the not so successful things that inevitably occur in the course of your journey toward accomplishing your goals – of achieving your dreams and desires. Let’s deal with those. Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, is one of the most admired and one of the most hated people in the world. He says, “It’s fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”

This from a guy who is responsible for the creation – and perpetuation – of the dreaded “blue screen of death,” where your work disappears for no apparent reason and can never be recovered! This from a guy who knows there will be bugs in his software and accepts that as an OK state of affairs. This from a guy whose virtual monopoly on business operating systems lets him ride roughshod over the people who have and continue to contribute to his billions of dollars of net worth.

Totally off-topic note:When you are working on something on your computer, make sure to use “CTRL+S” every few minutes! “CTRL+S” is your friend.

Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not bad-mouthing Bill Gates personally. Or event Microsoft (although I bet some of you do)! I’m not suggesting that we not learn from our setbacks and “failures” – a word I hate to use. Certainly we need to say to ourselves “OK, self, what can we learn from this less than optimally successful outcome? What can we do better next time?” Then we need to celebrate the success we did accomplish!

We actually did something that no one else has ever done. We made progress toward realizing our dreams and goals even if that progress was, in Bill Gates’ terminology, a “failure.” I like Mia Hamm’s advice much better: “Celebrate what you’ve accomplished, but raise the bar a little higher each time you succeed.”

Many of life’s “failures,” according to Thomas Edison, “are experienced by people who didn’t realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” Napoleon Hill agrees, saying “Most people have achieved their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.”

Celebrate what you accomplish, but raise the bar each time you succeed. – Mahamm

Success doesn’t come easily as I’ve pointed out before. It’s kind of like reaching for heaven. You have to work to get there. So celebrate your accomplishments, no matter whether they are huge successes or, more likely, successful steps along your way to the ultimate goals.

If you aren’t sensing some common themes as you read this book then either I’ve done a less than adequate job of presenting them or you are really obtuse. J

Winston Churchill defined success as the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. Taken in the abstract, outside of any specific goals, success can be considered as the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out, that move us toward our ultimate objective.

You know you’re on the right track when you become uninterested in looking back.

How will you know that you are on the right track as you move toward your goals? For one thing, you will find yourself “in the zone” more often than not. You’ll find yourself visualizing the end result you are pursuing so vigorously that you’ll stop looking back and really concentrate more and more on looking forward. You’ll begin to adopt thinking patterns and action habits that will consistently propel you forward.

Celebrate the small successes as well as the large ones. A great life isn’t necessarily about great huge things. It’s about little things that can make a big difference.

When your self-doubter begins to try to undermine what it is you are doing to achieve your dreams and desires – to become truly happy – then remember that how you think and act will have a significant impact on how well you perform.

Unsuccessful People:

  •       Fear change
  •       Blame others
  •       Think they know it all
  •       Are Transactional
  •       Talk about people
  •       Hope others fail
  •       Never set goals
  •       Horde data and information
  •       Exude anger

Do you want to attract people who fear change and blame others for their every misfortune? To be around people who think they “know it all,” avoid forming close and lasting relationships and talk about others? People who take perverse pleasure in hoping that others fail, never set goals for themselves, horde data and information and exude anger all the time?

Not me. You can have these kinds of people – if you want them in your life. But these types of people will suck the life out of you. You want to surround yourself with positive people. People who will lift you up, help you move forward, celebrate your successes with you as if they were their own. People who will continuously encourage you to grow and excel in whatever it is you’ve decided to do.

Successful People:

  •       Embrace change
  •       Accept responsibility
  •       Continuously learn
  •       Are relational
  •       Talk about ideas
  •       Hope others succeed
  •       Keep “to-do” and “to-Be” Lists
  •       Share data and information
  •       Exude joy

I want to be around successful people. People who accept responsibility for their own situation, who learn continuously and who embrace change. People who value relationships and who talk about ideas instead of people. People who share information, hope – and help – others (me! you!) succeed and exude joy as we celebrate our successes.

Your celebrations don’t always have to be loud, grand or raucous affairs involving multiple people. If you’ve had a good day with a success or two you might just look in the mirror, smile, and nod at the person looking back. Sometimes the best way to end a great day is with a silent acknowledgment of achievement and, more important, fulfillment.

One activity that I’ve found very valuable is to build up a storehouse of favorable outcomes and their accompanying feelings for use with future challenges. If you use, for example, the physical techniques that Amy Cuddy suggests, you can couple those physical actions with the feelings of success that are associated with overcoming past challenges to build your confidence in overcoming future challenges.

You can also simply try smiling for ten minutes before entering a meeting or an interview. The act of smiling will change your brain chemistry just as Amy’s techniques have been proven to do. I do this before joining networking meetings and it works wonders.

Rather than letting your self-doubter undermine your confidence you can use positive self-talk to increase it. So when life is sweet say, “Thank you,” and store those times away for times when life is not so kind to you.

When life is sweet say “thank you” and celebrate. When life is bitter say “thank you” and grow.

You can use even the not so nice times to make life more pleasing in the future. As Oprah Winfrey has been known to say, “The more you celebrate in your life, the more there is in your life to celebrate.”

Promise yourself also to be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

There is magic in celebrating your achievements and successes.

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The above material is from Chapter 8 of Inspiration Now! Order your copy now at  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RQT1BLK to read the other 8 chapters!

 

 

Networking Necessities, Niceties and No-Nos

Networking Necessities, Niceties, and No-Nos

If networking is part of your marketing strategy mix, and for many if not most of us it should be, are you really good at it or is it something you do because you’ve been told that you should do it – like I just did? If you are selling a commodity product, you may not consider networking as an important element of your marketing strategy. Things, after all, should pretty much sell themselves if they are useful and provide clear benefits to the buyer, right? Well, maybe… It might depend on the kind of things you are selling.

Food storage bowls come to mind. You wouldn’t nor­mally think of increasing your sales of these via network­ing as an important element of your marketing strate­gy.

But even with the Internet my spouse had a heck of a time finding some help selecting new bowls until I met someone at a networking event who sold them. How about auto insurance? Sure you can buy it over the phone or the Internet if you don’t believe in the value that an agent you know, like and trust can add to your purchase. Having an accident, of course, can change your point of view on this and insurance agents who network know this to be a fact.

I’m a believer in networking because it works for me and for a great many of my clients. The Networking Tips topic in my monthly newsletter is one of the most popular sections. But you have to do networking right if it is going to work for you. So here are some tips on doing it right.

Necessities

The first necessity is a positive attitude. If you dread networking activities it is going to show. You are going to be more of a wallflower than a winner, you are less likely to meet as many people as you could and the im­pressions you make may not be stellar. The next necessity is a set of goals. How many new people do you want to meet at a networking event? What kinds of people do you want to meet? These goals will help you to select the right networking events. If you sell garden hoses, for example, a home and garden networking event will be much more productive for you than a meeting of condo owners where gardening is done by the association’s hired help.

Niceties

Once you have the necessities covered, it’s time to con­sider some niceties. Wear a name badge so that people know who you are when you come up to them to ask them what business they are in. Invest in a permanent badge with your company logo on it and wear it on your upper right side to make it easy for people to read as you ap­proach to shake hands. That way you won’t spend your time wrestling with a generic paper badge that will dis­lodge itself several times during an event. And be confi­dent but considerate when shaking hands. No one likes to have their hand crushed so don’t try to show your domi­nance of others by doing that to them.

No-Nos

This list could get pretty long but here are the top first few. Mostly talking coupled with little listening is a no-no. How will you find out how you might be able to help someone if you don’t find out what they need? And why waste your own time talking to someone who might nev­er need what you offer. Don’t interrupt an ongoing con­versation between others. It’s rude. Wait for your opening while listening to the conversation. You never know – you might learn something! Don’t monopolize. A networking event is not the place to present your entire company and product or services story. It is a time to establish enough rapport so that you can arrange a meeting at a later date given that it makes sense for both parties.

Photo credit: Phoenix Lotus Productions, APACC Mega-Mixer.

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Article credit: The A to Z Blog Book and Inspiration Now!  (both by Jon Turino and available on Amazon and Kindle).

Praise for a Faucet Maker

FaucetPraise for a Faucet Maker

About a dozen years ago my spouse and I remodeled the kitchen in our condominium. We bought a beautiful Moen faucet for the sink and have been very happy with it until recently when the little rubber piece on top of the extensible spout that covers the stream vs. spray mode began to wear out. Still worked OK, of course, but it didn’t look “pretty” anymore. So I was tasked with solving this problem.

To the web I went for the Moen website. One click to get to kitchen faucets. Another click to browse by collection. A quick scroll to find the Extensa model number. Then to Replacement Parts for an excellent pictorial illustration of the faucet parts. But not down to the little grey gasket. Only to the whole spout. Hmm. Copy the spout part number from the illustration, paste it into the Part Number box and, viola, the $44.05 pullout spout is ready to be added to my cart for purchase.

Trouble is, though, I don’t need a whole new spout for $44.05. I only need a rubber gasket to replace the one that is worn on my otherwise perfectly good spout. So to the Contact Us tab for a phone number, which was toll free, and then a phone menu that was mercifully clear and short with only a few minutes wait for a human being to whom I described my situation.

The customer service rep asked me for the faucet model number, which I had written down. She asked me a couple of questions about the faucet, including the location of the logo and the color of the spout and then asked me for my name, address, zip code and email address. When I inquired as to why she needed this information to answer my question about whether or not I could buy just the gasket I was informed that she needed the information to ship me, without cost, a new spout since the gasket was not a user replaceable item and since the faucet is guaranteed for life. She then asked if delivery within 5-7 days was OK or if I needed it sooner, in which case I would have to pay for expedited shipping.

I was, frankly, blown away by this kind of warranty and this kind of service. She asked me if there was anything else she could do for me and told me that I’d receive an email confirming my order for the replacement spout. And that promised email was in my inbox before I even hung up the phone.

Why am I telling you this story? Because I think it’s high time we tell as many people as possible about good customer service as we usually tell people about bad customer service. You see the horror stories all over the Internet. Complaints about never being able to speak to a human being. Complaints about things failing one day after the warranty expires. Complaints about rude customer service representatives.

Don’t you tell as many people as possible about your unsatisfactory customer service experiences and maybe tell one or two, if you even tell anyone, about the good ones? How will the companies with bad customer service improve if we consumers don’t provide them with examples of what good customer service looks, sounds and feels like? We need to publicize the companies that do it right and, in my humble opinion, Moen gets a grade of “A+” for their policies, procedures and people.

In writing this article I went back to the Moen website and noticed their tagline: “Buy it for looks. Buy it for life.®” And I guess they really mean it based on the way they walked the talk with me. I know that if I ever have to buy another faucet, or recommend one to someone else, you can bet that a Moen product will be high on the list.

There may be other faucet makers who do as good a job as Moen. I just don’t have any personal experience on which to base an opinion pro or con so I can’t comment with any knowledge about them. But if I ever do have a good experience with another company like the one I had with Moen I promise to publicize it as well.

Do you have example of things you are especially pleased about? Or about outstanding customer service experiences? Please share them and ask others to do so as well. Thanks for reading.




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Ewwww! Gross!! — Marketing the Unmarketable

Toilet PaperEwwww! Gross!! – Marketing the Unmarketable

Karen Rice from Myrtle Beach, SC, posted the graphic you see to the left a few days ago. Here’s a snapshot of the conversation as a result of her post:

Jon Turino:  Wrong question! Whose brand are you buying? Why? Strength? Softness? Economy? Some other reason? Get it together at http://jonturino.com/probiotic-infographic/ Enjoy!

Monday at 10:32pm, Kathleen O’Mara:  I don’t want to know! LOL

Monday at 10:44pm, Kim Henson:  I would have never thought of all that, Jon Turino. Guess that’s why you market and I write.

17 hours ago, Kim Henson:  Me either, Kathleen O’Mara. Gross.

17 hours ago, Jon Turino: I wouldn’t want to be the marketer for this product either. But the people who are have come up with the bears who (1) shouldn’t use so much and (2) won’t end up with traces on their behinds, the “Enjoy the Go” campaign, using quarters to illustrate strength (with blue water), etc. Now let’s talk about probiotics and gluten free and how they can make your experience in the WC so much more enjoyable that you’ll sing and dance about it on national TV. For more of my “humor” get a copy of http://jonturino.com/packages-pricing/the-a-to-z-blog-book-jon-turino-on-amazon-and-kindle/ . There are 26 articles in it that we can chat about.

14 hours ago, Susan Baiden Chestnut: This one makes me go Hmmm!

9 hours ago, Kim Henson: Susan Baiden Chestnut, it makes me go Ewwww! Lol.

Thus I found the title for this post. And I got to thinking: What other products are really tough to market?

Hemorroids CreamsHow about hemorrhoid creams?

How about medicines for adult rash?Adult Rash Cream

There’s a new TV campaign for men who leak a little after peeing whose tagline is “Protect your manhood.”Guard Your Manhood

And pads for women who might leak a little when they laugh too hard, or cough, or are having their periods have been on the market for years. Panty Liners

Then there are adult diapers for both sexes.

Have I missed anything yet?

These are not generally the kinds of products that people talk about at social gatherings or business networking meetings, folks! They are normally quietly discussed between close friends to whom one trusts a seemingly or potentially embarrassing secret while looking for advice. And, like toilet paper, each has its own features and benefits when it comes to solving the problem – relieving the pain – associated with the condition.

I don’t know how much money advertisers spend on promoting toilet paper but it’s in the multiple millions of dollars per year. As are the expenditures for the other products mentioned above and illustrated in this post.

So what’s my point?

My point is that while everybody buys these things, the ones that get bought most often are the ones that are marketed most successfully. Just because everyone needs it and uses it doesn’t mean that you can expect to sell it without marketing.

If it can’t be found by the consumer or if your brand for your bottom is not “top of mind” when the need to buy it arises then you simply won’t have a viable business.

So let’s give a “hat’s off” – or a “bottoms up” – to the very creative folks who find new ways to market the unmentionables. And please give me a call if you need help marketing your product or service.

As always, thanks for reading and please do make time to comment pro or con.




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If I write it will they read it?

If I write it will they read it?

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If I write it will they read it?

If a tree falls in the forest when no one is nearby does the falling tree make any noise?

If a tree falls in the forest is the man wrong anyway?

What is the difference between the sound of one tree falling and two trees falling?

How do you know?

Do you know because you were there, or do you think you know because someone told you about their experience either in person or through their writings?

If you don’t know someone who has experienced something then you are very likely to learn many lessons in hard and painful ways. Unless, or course, you can read about them, understand them and avoid the hard and painful experiences.

But to do that, of course, you must make a conscious effort to read and understand what others have written – preferably before you are faced with a situation where prior knowledge would be extremely helpful.

Have you read something recently that will help you gain knowledge and wisdom or will you take your chances on being wrong in a critical situation?

Only you can choose.

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Horses, H2O and Humans

Horse  Drinking imageHorses, H2O and Humans

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a rant in this space. I’ve been inspired by Alex at Heyo and Derek at Social Triggers and even my buddy Jake at Embark Marketing. So here goes.

Cowboys used to say that you could lead a horse to water but that you couldn’t make him drink any. So the horses that wouldn’t drink any died. Which reinforced the cowboys’ belief that horses offered water that they wouldn’t drink were really stupid and thus deserved to die.

If you were offered water, would you drink it? I don’t mean Evian or Nestle or some other fancy water that you pay far too much for. I mean good old-fashioned water say from a tap in your kitchen. Or, if you are old enough to remember doing it, from the front end of the garden hose, after letting the water run for a while, of course, so that it was nice and cold and didn’t taste like rubber?

You probably might answer those questions with reservations. It would probably have something to do with whether or not you were thirsty at the time, right? But what if you weren’t thirsty at the time and a few minutes later your water supply was cut off by some catastrophe? Would you last as long as you might if you had drunk the water even if you weren’t in desperate need of it at the time?

Knowledge is like that. You might not think you need it when it is offered. But when disaster or drought strikes, you surely could have used it after your refusal to drink from the cup when you didn’t think you needed it, couldn’t you? How do you know when a piece of knowledge, a piece of expertise, a piece of experience or some advice on avoiding a mistake will be a critical element in shaping your future and the future of whatever endeavors you are engaged in?

I’ve been offering my knowledge to you for well over a year now. Many of you have taken advantage of it, particularly the free stuff, including the website resources list, the calendar of events, my monthly newsletter and maybe even these blog posts. And I’m thankful that my efforts to provide value for you are appreciated at some level and that you are finding them useful.

I have to say, however, that sometimes my efforts to bring knowledge to you so that you will have it in your time of need seem to be unappreciated or ignored. Not always, but sometimes. I did The A to Z Blog Book. $24.95 on Amazon, now $9.95 on Kindle and $20 if you get one from me personally, autographed or not. Several hundred ordered it during the free promo period on Kindle. Two were kind enough to write reviews, and very nice ones at that.

I just did the Probiotic Marketing Infographic. OK, the name is funny because it is a take-off on the TV commercials touting prebiotics, probiotics and other “features” of yogurt. Clearly a borrowed interest kind of name, to which I don’t normally resort,  but an infographic filled with tremendously valuable information on how best to market what you sell to the most likely prospects in the most effective way in any case.

I’ve been promoting these things heavily on Google+, Facebook and Linkedin. A few of you are drinking in the knowledge offerings, and many of you are complimenting them with “likes,”  but not nearly enough of you to justify the effort that it takes to lead you to the water. It reminds me of the cartoon showing an Indian chief ignoring a Gattling gun salesman because he was too busy fighting a battle with bows and arrows. You’ve seen the cartoon. And you’ve thought: what an idiot. But have you looked at, let alone taken advantage of the knowledge offers in The A to Z Blog Book or the Probiotic Marketing Infographic? Not according to my Google analytics! So what does that make you?

How much is a good idea worth if it increases your sales, bumps up your profits or helps you stay in business? How much is being prepared in advance worth? I have bunches of stories about how a few ounces of prevention can save tons of time, effort, money and grief. But you have to make the effort and the investment in learning these prevention techniques before you need them if they are to be of use to you.

Please give some thought to these issues. Buy The A to Z Blog Book in one form or another. Order the Probiotic Marketing Infographic. They don’t cost very much. And they contain the kind of information you really need and won’t find anywhere else in this world. Or be like the horse that is led to water and refuses to drink. It is your choice, and I hope you choose to drink in this valuable knowledge before you succumb to the results of not doing so.

As always, thanks for reading and please do bombard me with comments pro and con.

Scoop.it Featured Author on Business 2 Community  

Image credit: <a href=’http://www.123rf.com/photo_13261383_skinny-cowboy-horse-drinks-water-from-a-bucket-vector-illustration.html’>vipdesignusa / 123RF Stock Photo</a>

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Summertime, Summertime, Sum-sum-Summertime…

IMG_0531-croppedSummertime, Summertime, Sum-sum-Summertime…

As I write this in Portland, OR, it is 78°F under a crystal clear blue sky. Yesterday was gorgeous as well and the forecasters promise several more days like this. It definitely feels like summertime is approaching. We’ve already been buying freshly picked strawberries from the roadside stands and the local farmers markets have opened. It’s hard to sit at a computer and work under conditions like this!

There will be graduations to attend, early vacations and a host of other mostly outdoor activities coming up over the next few months. Participation in indoor networking events will be down, but the several al fresco events in Portland will be mobbed, even if it’s hot like last year. That’s because we live for the upcoming sunny months. They renew us in spirit, feed our bodies with vitamin D, encourage us to exercise more and just generally improve our moods.

There will be street fairs and celebrations that provide sellers with opportunities to bring their wares closer to their customers in convivial atmospheres. More people will be walking in neighborhood business districts and thus more likely to visit retail establishments. Restaurants with outside seating will be making more money well into the evening hours. It really is a wonderful time of year.

It’s also time to take a look at your marketing activities to make sure that you capitalize on your opportunities to attract more customers and make more sales. Get that table at the street fair. Hold a sidewalk sale – or two or three at reasonable intervals. Provide gift coupons to your loyal customers for outdoor activities they might enjoy. Perhaps you can partner with other vendors to do this without incurring too much extra expense by cross-promoting each other.

Participate in a parade if your town does one. Or sponsor concerts and movies in the parks, a very popular set of events here in Portland. Partner with a local ice cream or frozen yogurt store to do a promotion. Or rent a snow cone machine and the people to run it. Hire a face painter or a professional balloon artist to bring families with children to your establishment. Offer a mid-afternoon “happy hour” if you run a restaurant.

Celebrate the summer with your prospects and customers so they remember you fondly in the Fall and during the Winter months. And please share your ideas for summer business promotions with my readers and I. We’d love to hear from you. Enjoy June!
Scoop.it Featured Author on Business 2 Community